One White Wish

American statues need to represent our history, I agree. Furthermore, we need to represent that history accurately.

I wish I were a zillionaire; I would send out a call to all artists to create statues of slaves by the dozens. I would look for statues of the famous slaves, educate the public by funding statues of the lesser known famous slaves, and cherish most of all, the statues of the unknown slaves. The countless men, women, and children that toiled an entire lifetime and suffered abuses that modern day can hardly fathom, enriched this country greatly- through the free labor they were forced to provide. The abuses that they suffered, including sexual assaults, torture, and murder, had no positive impact, other than submit to the evil whims of a selfish, lazy, white asshole from at least a century and a half ago.

Now this is where it gets crazy. There are actually modern day white people that think they have a right to be butthurt about the expectation to care about the atrocities that slaves were forced to endure. For those white people: How many of your children or other family members have been suddenly whisked away and "sold" only to never be seen or heard from again? Any memories of this? Worries about this? How many times have you gone to work a 80 hour week knowing there was no paycheck or retirement... ever? How about 115 hour work weeks? Memories? How many times were you whipped until near death and permanently scarred for learning to read and write? Or have your foot amputated with a handsaw for leaving your property? Worries this could happen? Do you get chained underground at dusk? Often, sometimes, or never?

You want to say, "Well that was a long time ago and I had nothing to do with it!" (I can hear it already.) That may be true, but your answer is INCORRECT. Or you might say "I like them Confederate statues because it is history and we do not want to forget!" I don't want to forget either- so that it can never be repeated. But this is another WRONG answer.

***White people should be saying "Slavery is an abomination!" and be enraged at what our ancestors did! ***

This happens to be the exact opposite of most white people's apathetic attitude, if not some people's horrible jerk attitudes. Some of us want to assume that racism is dead or dying. Some of us do not know how to help. Some of us do not know just how much we do not know about slavery or racism (as in a zillion tons). Apparently some of us think that slavery is A-OK. If a friend said that their grandparents were tortured and beaten and treated as animals, would you say "Well that is history", or "I didn't do it", or "I would like a statue of the fiend that is responsible"? Of course not! You would simply say "That is horrible!" and if you are a good friend, you would listen.

This is why I want a plethora of slave statues; to remember, honor, and apologize to the people who knew nothing but toil, and unending grief and pain, and whose sacrifices contributed to the America that I benefit from today. If we can't take Confederate statues down, we should surround them by slave statues at a ratio of ten to one. We should include plaques with historical information about which souls to bless and which souls to shame.

The bottom line is that Confederacy era statues were made for the wrong people of the day. The bare bones minimum that a white person could do is agree to this fact. If you are unwilling to agree, then you need to self identify as a racist. You do not get to have it both ways, because at this point you would be literally choosing masters over slaves.

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P.S. For white people muttering about Washington and Jefferson having slaves and statues: Still shaming their souls here, but they were not leaders of the Confederacy. That is the difference.